official correspondence
of the time, would compose a romance rather than a true history. Of this
many proofs have been given in the present work.

Another thing which always appeared to me very remarkable was, that
Bonaparte, notwithstanding his incontestable superiority, studied to
depreciate the reputations of his military commanders, and to throw on
their shoulders faults which he had committed himself. It is notorious
that complaints and remonstrances, as energetic as they were well
founded, were frequently addressed to General Bonaparte on the subject of
his unjust and partial bulletins, which often attributed the success of a
day to some one who had very little to do with it, and made no mention of
the officer who actually had the command. The complaints made by the
officers and soldiers stationed at Damietta compelled General Lanusse,
the commander, to remonstrate against the alteration of a bulletin, by
which an engagement with a body of Arabs was represented as an
insignificant affair, and the